Paper Secrets Announcements

Though the announcement was made a little while ago on their site and I posted about it on facebook, I realized that I still hadn’t posted the info on my own blog! I’m thrilled to have made it on the Paper Secrets DT! I greatly appreciate the honor and am so happy to be able to share the news! πŸ˜€ The April Challenges are still going full swing, so be sure to check them out! Entries are due the last day of this month. Please be sure to upload your projects to the gallery. There will be a drawing for the winner. The more challenges you complete, the greater your chance of winning the fabulous kit! πŸ˜€

On another note, we’ve started taking sign-ups for the “Scrap Your Ass Off” event that begins on May 13th. You can sign up now through the 12th if you’d like to join in on the fun! Here’s how it will work (copied and pasted directly from the forum):

*Sign up before May 12th to play. You will not be able to sign up after this date.
*Challenges will be posted every Friday. The 1st challenge will be posted Friday, May 13th. You will have 7 days to upload your layout to the designated gallery album.
*Any participants who do not upload before the deadline will be eliminated. Those who do will move on to the next round.
*All the challenges will be based on a sketch & use of basic supplies such as ribbon, flowers, bling, buttons, etc.
*The series of challenges will go until there is only 1 participant left, making them the winner who will get their choice of scrap supplies valued at $75.

*Our Design Team will be playing along but will not be eligible to win.

CLICK HERE if you’d like to play along!

Projects Created with For the Record by Echo Park

There’s a great site called Sketches4All that I visit frequently. The people there are great and the challenges are a lot of fun! Well, I won SGOTM (Sketch Girl of the Month) for March and Fia sent me Echo Park’s new For the Record paper pack! When it arrived early this month, I was soooo excited! The papers are vibrant and beautifully designed, which is no surprise if you’re familiar with Echo Park’s wonderful, high-quality papers. The paper pack comes with twelve 12×12 double sided papers, one 12×12 element sticker sheet and one 12×12 alphabet sticker sheet. Of the twelve cardstock papers, there are 2 that have a pattern on one side and the other side is divided into four 6×6 sections…perfect for cards and tags! There’s another sheet that is patterned on one side and has cutout border strips on the other and lastly, there is one sheet that has a pattern on one side and cutout journaling cards on the other side. They really thought of everything! I loved working with this fabulous paper pack. Thank you Fia!!!

So far, I made one layout, one card and one tag. I still have at least 5 sheets that I haven’t cut into yet and plenty of scraps for several projects. I adore the diecut sticker images that come with this set too! I’ve set most of those aside for a journal I’ll be working on later this month. πŸ˜€

This is a tag I created for Michelle’s challenge group on the site. It’s based on the first April tag sketch and features a diecut sticker that I turned into a ribbon slider by making a couple of simple cuts:

This card was created for the rolled paper technique challenge in Khristen’s group using the colors Rosey posted for a challenge. The handmade flower was very easy to make and I hope to post a tutorial on it in the future, along with other flowers I’ve made on past projects:

This layout was based on Fia’s first April challenge for the Get Sketchy group. All stitching is done by hand since I do not have a sewing machine:

Thanks for looking!

Materials:

Echo Park For the Record Collection Kit
Sei ribbon (on the tag)
May Arts ribbon (on the card)
jeweled brad from my stash
Stickles
Black Bazzill cardstock
American Crafts white cardstock
DMC embroidery floss

Adhesives:

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Liquid
Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac

Tools:

Fiskars border/edge punch

To play along with these and other fabulous challenges on Sketches4All, CLICK HERE!

Firedog layout – Sketchy Thursdays Challenge Entry

Here’s Matthew when he was 2 years old. His preschool was having a unit on Community workers and had a Fireman visit the school. He had a blast checking out the fire engine. They even let him get inside! As you can see, the teachers went all out. πŸ˜€ He came home with his little paper hat with the ears and a little black painted nose. It was so cute! By the time I grabbed the camera, he’d already rubbed some of the paint off of his face, but you get the idea. This layout was based on the Sketchy Thursdays 3.31 sketch:

Materials:

Bo Bunny Timepiece 12×12 cardstock paper
BB Midnight Frost cardstock papers
BB Midnight Frost diecut sticker
BB Timepiece Chipboard
BB Timepiece Dimensional Stickers
May Arts ribbon
Tattered Angle Shimmer Mist
Shimmerz paint
Inksssentials white opaque pen
Sakura Pigma brown brush pen
Distress Ink

Adhesives:

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Liquid
Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac

Tools:

Martha Stewart Doily Lace Edge/Border Punch

Here’s the sketch I used:

If you’d like to enter a Sketchy Thursdays challenge too (this one ends tonight, but they have a new sketch up every week), CLICK HERE.

Comments are always welcome and appreciated! Don’t forget I’m also offering up some blog candy for comments left on any post between April 3, 2011 and April 9, 2011! One comment per post per day please! Followers of my blog have a chance to win a separate prize! See THIS POST for further details and pictures. TFL!

Recent Layouts and a Card

Wow! Now that was a really busy weekend! The Birthday Bash on the Paper Secrets forum is now closed, but you can still enter the challenges until the end of the month. For each completed project, you get an entry into the monthly drawing for the April prize. πŸ˜€

Here are a few more projects I completed for the challenges. I combined some of them with challenges on other sites. This first one is for the “Remember When” challenge. The requirement was that your layout had to reference the number 2 in some way. Whether it’s twins, an age (even a number like 11 counts since it has two 1’s in it), 2 friends, 2 days, etc. I used a photo that only included 2 of my children and Matthew was 2 at the time this photo was taken. πŸ˜€ When I’m referring to just Madison and Matthew, I tend to call them “My M&M’s,” that’s where I got my title. I combined this challenge with one in a Sketches4All group. Kaori challenged us to create a layout using metal embellishments. Here’s what I came up with:

Materials:

Bo Bunny Gabrielle 12×12 cardstock papers
BB Gabrielle Trinkets
BB Gabrielle Brad
BB Gabrielle diecut stickers and alphas
The cover of the BB Gabrielle Noteworthy journaling pad
American Crafts cardstock
Distress Inks

Adhesives:

Helmar 450 Quick Dry Liquid
Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac

Another Paper Secrets challenge is the “Wonderful BD” (BD being birthday) Technique Challenge. For this one, you need to create a birthday themed layout with the following requirements: hand cut/fussy cut an element from patterned paper and use pop dots to add dimension to the cut element. Use at least 2 different alpha stickers and incorporate either glitter or stickles on your project somewhere. I combined this challenge with Ilene Tell’s on Back Porch Memories. For her challenge, you just need to use kraft cardstock as the base and the background. Here’s what I came up with:

Materials:

Kraft cardstock
Webster’s Pages Garden Gala 12×12 cardstock paper
WP Storytellers Diecut Alpha Stickers
Stickles

Adhesives:

Helmar Scrap Dots
Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac

Next I have a card to share that I created for the Shabby Chic challenge on Paper Secrets. For this challenge you could create a card or layout, but they have different requirements. The layout requires you to use a pre-1950’s vintage photo, which I did not have, so I went with the card. For the card, you just need soft colors, paint, stitching and ribbon. Here’s my take on the challenge:

Materials:

Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime paper pad
American Crafts cardstock
DMC embroidery floss
May Arts Ribbon
Distress Ink
Folk Art acryllic paint

Adhesives:

Helmar 450 liquid (to attach the ribbon)
Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac

The last project I have to share with you today is a simple tag. This one was for a sketch challenge on Sketches4All. The twist was that it had to be just black and white. The challenge is now closed, but to view the sketch, CLICK HERE. This is what I came up with:

Materials:

Echo Part Be Mine 12×12 Paper
American Crafts gingham ribbon
E. Line Prima flower

Adhesives:

Glue Arts Glue Glider Pro Perma Tac

Tools:

Imaginisce I-Top

Don’t forget I’m also offering up some blog candy for comments left on any post between April 3, 2011 and April 9, 2011! One comment per post per day please! Followers of my blog have a chance to win a separate prize! See THIS POST for further details and pictures. TFL!

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries